VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LexaGene Holdings Inc. (OTCQB:LXXGF) (TSX-V:LXG) (the “Company”), a biotechnology company that develops instrumentation for pathogen detection, today announced the appointments of Dr. Nathan Walsh to the role of Director of Applications – Bioinformatics and Dr. Manoj Nair to the role of Senior Staff Scientist. Drs. Walsh and Nair are the most recent additions to the Company’s senior leadership team, following a series of new hires at the executive level.

“As LexaGene prepares to bring the world’s first fully automated, on-site, open-access pathogen detection system online, the arrivals of Drs. Walsh and Nair – two strong leaders with deep expertise in bioinformatics and molecular biology, respectively – are a direct result of LexaGene’s rapid growth and advancement,” said Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO. “Additionally, the skillsets of both Nathan and Manoj are not only highly sought after across the board, but they are also a perfect fit for LexaGene as we progress towards commercializing this market-changing technology.”

Dr. Walsh received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and conducted post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. A leader in genomic and DNA informatics, Dr. Walsh managed the informatics and IT departments for companies working with DNA sequences, ranging from biotech and pharmaceutical startups to companies with sequencing devices aimed at the clinical oncology market. Dr. Walsh most recently served as Head of Bioinformatics at Bio-Rad, where he led the informatics team responsible for genomic analysis on and off instrument. Prior to Bio-Rad, Dr. Walsh served as Senior Director, Bioinformatics and IT, at Ensemble Therapeutics, where he managed the sequence analysis group made up of informatics programmers.

Dr. Nair received his PhD in food microbiology and safety from the University of Connecticut, with postdoctoral fellowship studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Albany Medical College, where he worked on bio-threat organisms. Most recently, Dr. Nair served as Senior Assay Developer at a diagnostic startup, where he oversaw the development of molecular diagnostic assays through feasibility and verification. Before that, Dr. Nair served as Staff Scientist at Beckman Coulter Molecular Diagnostics and Senior Scientist at Roche Molecular Systems. He has published many peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, and has spoken at major conferences on food protection and other topics. Earlier in his career, Dr. Nair was a licensed veterinarian who specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases.

“I’m thrilled to be able to announce the addition of Drs. Walsh and Nair to LexaGene’s rapidly growing team,” concluded Dr. Regan. “Our ability to be able to recruit such experienced and talented leaders is further proof that LexaGene is moving toward becoming a truly market-disrupting company when it comes to the future of pathogen detection.”

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About LexaGene Holdings Inc.

LexaGene is a biotechnology company developing the very first fully automated pathogen detection platform that is open-access, the LX6. The open-access feature will empower end-users to target any pathogen of interest, as they can load their own real-time PCR assays onto the instrument for customized pathogen detection. End-users simply need to collect a sample, load it onto the instrument with a sample preparation cartridge, and press ‘go’. The instrument is expected to offer excellent sensitivity, specificity, and breadth of pathogen detection. The instrument will be able to process six samples at a time, in an on-demand fashion, returning results in about 1 hour. The company expects to sell its technology in the food safety, veterinary diagnostics, water quality monitoring, and aquaculture pathogen surveillance markets.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors -- including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the success of technology development efforts, the cost to procure critical parts, performance of the instrument, market acceptance of the technology, regulatory acceptance, and licensing issues -- that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations as disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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